McCormick in FYRE for the first time, tops in-out rate

6.5 percent of freshmen switched housing

Requests to participate in FYRE and summer lottery data by dorm. Data provided by the Division of Student Life.Colleen Madlinger–The Tech

Maseeh Hall and Simmons Hall were the most popular picks among the freshmen class this year, while the fewest number of freshmen chose to live in East Campus and Random Hall.

After moving into their temporary housing assignments, 11 percent of the Class of 2021 entered the First Year Residence Exchange (FYRE), which is comparable with participation statistics from the past three years. Fifty-nine percent of participants eventually moved, down from 71 percent last year.

Simmons had the most freshmen attempt to move in, while East Campus had the most attempt to leave. In order of FYRE-in to FYRE-out ratio, McCormick, New House, Simmons, Maseeh, and MacGregor, saw more residents attempt to move in than out. This was the first year that McCormick has participated in FYRE. Burton Conner, Baker, Next House, and East Campus saw the opposite trend, while Random Hall saw equal numbers try to enter and exit.

FYRE data was provided to The Tech by the Division of Student Life. The Tech was unable to obtain a breakdown of how many people actually moved in and out by dorm.

“I've noticed that every year Maseeh is getting more popular among the incoming freshman,” Rob Bugliarelli ’18, president of Maseeh, wrote in an email to The Tech. “I think a lot of it has to do with the ‘Maseeh has no culture’ stigma starting to fade away as we become more established in the MIT community.”

Jennifer Hapgood-White, associate director of housing assignments in the Division of Student Life, wrote in an email to The Tech that “the vast majority of students were matched with one of their top housing choices.”

Speaking about her decision to FYRE, Aba Kpeglo ’21 said, “I just felt I should be happier in my dorm and I wasn’t as happy as I wanted in Next House. But other people are definitely happy in Next, so FYREing is a personal decision.”

Students were given opportunities to find a residence that best suited them through Residence Exchange (REX). “I’m super glad the residence heads and administration made sure to give a lot of opportunities to find a dorm that was a personality match to me,” said Adelynn Paik ’21.

Paik said that REX, while “short enough so that it didn’t interfere with other orientation [programming],” was a helpful and useful process in determining where to call home for the year.

With the conversion of Senior House from undergraduate to graduate housing, about 70 undergraduates accepted an incentivized offer to live in graduate housing to alleviate crowding in undergraduate dorms, Matthew Bauer, director of communications for the Division of Student Life, told The Tech in an email. Approximately 100 graduate students moved into what was formerly Senior House, which has a capacity of 133 students.